Small-city districts face large gaps in funding

Jan. 14, 2008

Michael Rebell, the lead lawyer who successfully sued the state to boost education funding in New York City, is a faculty member at Columbia University's Teachers College in Manhattan. He discusses funding and diversity in a video interview at lohud.com/ourschools. / Angela Gaul/The Journal News

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The Journal News

- Watch an interview with its director, Michael Rebell, at LoHud.com/ourschools.- To see the court filings in the New York State Association of Small City School Districts school funding case, visit scsd.neric.org.- Hear Jonathan Kozol, writer and activist, talk about ethics and public education for poor and minority children on the "Hall Monitor" education blog, hallmonitor.lohudblogs.com.

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The numbers crunchers in small-city districts like Peekskill and Mount Vernon say working on a budget is more about subtraction than addition.

The financial situation many say they face - disproportionately low state aid and large numbers of poor residents unwilling to pay higher taxes - makes it difficult to expand instructional programs or purchase computers and new equipment, initiatives needed to boost student achievement.

"We are still underfunded, way underfunded," Peekskill Superintendent Judith Johnson said of the district's share of state aid. "It's hard to provide the enrichment services for disadvantaged kids that more affluent kids get automatically. You need more money."

For as long as state aid has gone to schools - since 1894 in New York - advocates have fought to show the inequities of a funding system they say leaves needy students at a disadvantage compared with those in wealthier suburban districts.

Many students in small cities underperform because their districts are underfunded, said Robert E. Biggerstaff, executive director and general counsel of the New York State Association of Small City School Districts.

"Our kids have been shortchanged for decades under the state-aid formula," he said. "State aid is not keeping up with the needs these poor districts have."

In 2005, the association filed a lawsuit on behalf of 26 small-city districts, including Mount Vernon, charging that three-quarters of the state's urban and rural districts are inadequately funded. The group hoped to mirror the success of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which succeeded in securing billions more in aid for New York City and now has gone national.

But the local lawsuit was dismissed in the summer. The court found the districts, functioning essentially as agents of the state to provide education, did not have the legal standing to sue the state. The court also found the suit did not provide enough evidence of specific inequities that prevented each district from providing the basic, sound education required by law.

"Having a high poverty rate definitely has an impact on the money that is required to successfully educate children," said Tony Sawyer, Mount Vernon's superintendent. "We need more resources than (wealthier districts) do," he said. "People are not willing to redistribute money to those in need."

Michael Rebell said equity lawsuits have been the driving force behind "more spending and fairer spending" in poor districts in New Jersey and Massachusetts. The group he now leads, the Campaign for Educational Equity at Columbia University's Teachers College, was set up to battle against disparities nationwide.

"You can't expect results in these kinds of complex cases dealing with serious disadvantages that these kids have suffered for generations. You can't expect overnight success," Rebell said. "But we think this is the moral imperative and the most important educational issue of the 21st century."

Though state aid increased an average of 10 percent in many small cities in New York last year, the boost doesn't come close to the extra $7 billion over six years that is necessary to equalize funding, Biggerstaff said. Peekskill and Mount Vernon received increases of 3 percent in foundation aid - the money that covers the basic operating costs of classroom education.

As a result, residents in many small cities are forced to carry higher school-tax burdens, said Fred Smith, assistant superintendent of pupil, personnel and curricular services in New Rochelle. The small-city districts' suit said rates in such districts are 20 percent higher than in wealthier districts. Even with the higher tax rates, many small-city districts still can't raise as much money as wealthier neighbors; on average, they spend 20 percent less per student.

"School funding across the United States is just inequitable," said Smith, whose district supported the suit. "We've changed standards, we've increased standards, but we haven't really done anything to address these funding disparities."

The disparity shows most in student performance, Biggerstaff said. Small-city students score lower on standardized tests and are more prone to discipline problems, he said. Such schools tend to have larger class sizes and less-experienced teachers, according to the districts' lawsuit.

"It costs more to educate a child in a disadvantaged area than a child from an affluent area if they are to achieve the same standard," Johnson said. "But I cannot go back to the taxpayer and make up the difference of what is needed to educate our children."